Discover here the best news about mobile software, apps and deals.

07
Mar

1. Launch the Android Market
2. Update Google Music
3. When the update has been installed, go to your home screen
4. Pull down the notification shade and tap the Settings icon
5. Tap Apps
6. Go to Market under the “All” tab
7. Press “Clear Data”
8. Open Play Music (that’s what the new Google Music is called)
9. Tap the Market icon in the bottom tray
10. Confirm the upgrade

You’ll be able to tell if you have the new “Market” by looking at the icon in the “Play Store” app. If it’s the new white colored sack with a multicolored arrow on it, you’ve got the new one! Also, the “Market” will no longer show up in your app list, it will have been replaced with the “Play Store”.

05
Mar

We’ve recently talked about Samsung’s fascinating plans to incorporate flexible and bendable displays into its products, and noted that the first devices to be equipped with flexible panels will come later this year.

Now, a Forbes report confirms the Q2 2012 timeframe that previous sources have suggested, but also offers us a tantalizing glimpse of how exactly Samsung is going to implement its ground-breaking plastic-based AMOLED technology into actual products.

05
Mar

Although the rumored foldable screens are definitely coming to Samsung devices, Nomura Research analyst Richard Windsor says that we shouldn’t expect them sooner than 2013. Nevertheless, this year, we can hope to see another amazing development from the South Korean mammoth tech company – bezel-less smartphones with displays on their sides. Although the idea seems crazy, a mockup image provided by Nomura shows us that the concept can look very appealing.

25
Feb

The customer is always right – and the customer is you. Samsung has earned itself a warm place in many a smartphone owners heart in the past year. Another facet of their business that is highly respected is their display/panel business. Arguably, they produce some of the finest displays in the world.

And so today we have a rumor from Korean news outlet that claims that Samsung is actively developing an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich based bezel-less smartphone. Depending on your own feelings, you will take this as either a positive or a negative thing. Regardless of what you think though, it is clear that this is another example of Sammy pushing the envelope.

23
Feb

LG Optimus 4X HD announced with quad-core Tegra 3, Android 4.0 By Dieter Bohn on February 22, 2012 11:22 pm 52COMMENTS 8 inShare Whether you’re ready for a deluge of quad-core Android handsets or not, LG is getting things started with the Optimus 4X HD. Inside, its Nvidia Tegra 3 processor is clocked at 1.5GHz, sits behind a 4.7-inch 1280 x 720 IPS display, and within an 8.9mm-thin body. Thankfully, it will launch with Android 4.0, which should sing quite nicely on the quad-core chip along with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. If you weren’t aware, Tegra three actually offers a “companion core” with its “4-plus-1″ setup that can be used in low power situations to help the phone sip on the 2150mAh battery instead of gulp at it, extending battery life. DLNA and MHL are also on board along with the obvious 8-megapixel camera in back and 1.3-megapixel camera in front. We’ve already seen leaked benchmarks for the LG Optimus 4X HD (née X3) and they’re quite good: it grabbed a Quadrant score of 4,412, well above even the Galaxy Note. LG says it will be available in Europe in the second quarter.

While the Oakley Thumps merely pump music through the attached earbuds, these Google glasses appear to basically act as a head-mounted smartphone with a tiny screen mounted to the side of them and an interface controlled by voice commands.

Says 9to5Google:

The navigation system currently used is a head tilting-to scroll and click. We are told it is very quick to learn and once the user is adept at navigation, it becomes second nature and almost indistinguishable to outside users.

I/O on the glasses will also include voice input and output, and we are told the CPU/RAM/storage hardware is near the equivalent of a generation-old Android smartphone. As a guess, we would speculate something like 1GHz ARM A8, 256MB RAM and 8GB of storage? In any case, it will also function as a smartphone.

05
Feb

The TF300T

Blurrycam, while based in China, was able to capture what might be Asus’s latest Android tablet, the TF300T.

With regard to the new device, the TF300T, the design bears the classic Asus appeal, which has been pretty consistent with the previous models. The biggest difference is that the new model has a striking red rear which will surely receive lots of feedback when it’s finally out in the market.

As of this writing, hardware specs of the device have not yet been disclosed. As soon as these are ready, we’ll be sure to update you, our dear reader.

Also, we’re not quite sure that these photos are authentic. Either way, we’re hoping to get more information pretty soon. What do you think? Do these photos look real to you?

02
Feb

While there’s still no specs available, we’re eagerly anticipating the launch of the ADzero mobile phone, which has an external case made entirely from bamboo. We’ve seenwooden phones before, but this is easily one of the most striking, and the head designer isn’t even finished with university. Middlesex student and London resident Kieron Scott-Woodhouse originally designed a mobile phone concept out of steel and bronze that was noticed by a number of phone blogs as well as ADzero, who contacted Scott-Woodhouse to help design a new phone.

The design team decided on bamboo because the phone’s being manufactured in China, and they were looking for a natural, local, renewable material. The bamboo is four years old, organically grown, and specially treated to improve durability — it’s also light, with prototypes weighing half of what the iPhone weighs. Originally, this Android-powered phone was only going to be available in China, but thanks to the attention it’s getting, ADzero is looking to target a more boutique market in the UK as well. There’s no word on when this phone will launch other than “this year,” but we’re hoping to get our hands on one of these as soon as possible.

30
Jan

September 23, 2008, Android 1.0, the first commercial version of Android is released. Just over 3 years later, October 19, 2011, after evolving from Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, and Honeycomb, not including Astro and Bender, Ice Cream Sandwich was announced. Along the way, Android put out loads of features and took in some 200+ million users. Today, we’re going to be breaking down two of the newest, and arguably best, Android versions (Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich). Obviously, a winner has already been chosen for this Versus Match. However, look at the competition as more of a comparison and evolution of Android.

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Multitasking, Widgets, and Folders

Two of Android’s most notable and original features are Multitasking and Widgets. Therefore, Ice Cream Sandwich will be bringing new meaning to both of those features with some key upgrades.

First, the Recent Apps button lets users jump instantly from one task to another using the list in the System Bar. The list that pops up should be very familiar to Honeycomb users. Furthermore, the list will show you a thumbnail image of whats going on inside of that app for easy app-switching. If you want to get rid of recent app, just toss it away with a finger swipe.

Note! this swiping feature also works with browser tabs and notifications.

In addition, Ice Cream Sandwich now enables users to re-seize their widgets. Want a full page dedicated to Gmail? Go for it! Finally, Android 4.0 borrows iOS’s folder creation method of drag and drop. Therefore, all you have to do to create a folder is pick up and app, and throw it onto another one.
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Improved Speed

Although at the time, Gingerbread was a huge update to older android versions in terms of speed, Google somehow managed to make Ice Cream Sandwich faster. And we’re not just talking about minor speed improvements. “In benchmarks run on a Nexus S device, the Android 4.0 browser showed an improvement of nearly 220% over the Android 2.3 browser in the V8 Benchmark Suite and more than 35% in the SunSpider 9.1 JavaScript Benchmark. When run on a Galaxy Nexus device, the Android 4.0 browser showed improvement of nearly 550% in the V8 benchmark and nearly 70% in the SunSpider benchmark” (Android Developers).